I wasn't comparing the two guys. I don't see a lot of similarities. If you look at what I wrote, I was talking about Mercury's reference to retiring right before you break a historic record. That is exactly what Barry Sanders did, retiring right before he broke Walter Peyton's all-time career rushing record. He also once took himself out of the last game of a season right before he became the season's rushing leader.

I wasn't comparing the two guys. I don't see a lot of similarities. If you look at what I wrote, I was talking about Mercury's reference to retiring right before you break a historic record. That is exactly what Barry Sanders did, retiring right before he broke Walter Peyton's all-time career rushing record. He also once took himself out of the last game of a season right before he became the season's rushing leader.

Leave it to ESPN to sanction and conduct this poll. I know they are the so called experts in sports, but I think this poll generated in their own offices in Bristol as some employees and contibutors (Mike Lupica, John Feinsten, the white haired Boston guy amoing others who probably hate the fact that their employer has a daily "Chasing Aaron" segment on the bottom of the page sports ticker and lead off every sports center with a Bonds HR if he hits one that day or night.

As far of the races preference, no comment on that, but what do you expect?? Similar racial percentages surfaced originally when asked the question if OJ did it?

Leave it to ESPN to sanction and conduct this poll. I know they are the so called experts in sports, but I think this poll generated in their own offices in Bristol as some employees and contibutors (Mike Lupica, John Feinsten, the white haired Boston guy amoing others who probably hate the fact that their employer has a daily "Chasing Aaron" segment on the bottom of the page sports ticker and lead off every sports center with a Bonds HR if he hits one that day or night.

As far of the races preference, no comment on that, but what do you expect?? Similar racial percentages surfaced originally when asked the question if OJ did it?

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ESPN has the $$$ so they are going to be on the top providing sports information to the world. Obviously they are going to pay $$$ to their employees to provide that information. So that information is going to be whatever creates more interest and therefore more $$$.

first off, disclaimer: not a huge baseball fan so i don't really know what i am talking about. this is just an outsider's opinion.

my problem with the issue, i think, is that bonds is still playing. i mean, if he's playing then in my view he's as eligible as anyone else to break records and receive whatever accolades correspond to doing so. that said, he probably shouldn't be playing, but then that's mlb's problem in my view and, until they fix it by implementing some sort of more consistent policy/testing procedure, etc., then they are just sort of indignantly blowing smoke about the purity of a game that, as far as i can tell hasn't been pure for some time (if it ever was). and in that case, i wanna know why everybody's got their whitey tighties in a bundle over him breaking this record.

I don't understand how their sample size is big enough to provide a racial breakout, yet the sub-sample of about 25% is not big enough for questions 2 and 3. But then it is big enough for the rest of the questions.

I don't see anything special about questions 2 or 3 that would have made this the case.

It seems to me like Hark Aaron has cast his vote by saying he doesn't care about it and won't attend to see it happen. This is after he criticized the baseball comissioner for not being there when he broke the Babe's record.

The press really loves its audience. You know they're gonna have cameras in two sports bars when Bonds breaks the record. One Sports Bar will be mostly white, while the other is mostly black. They did this kind of thing when OJ was found innocent..............Anything to sell advertizing dollars......................

The record will be tainted and that is unfortunate. But baseball can only blame themselves. They looked the other way for 30 years. Now they reap their reward. In some ways, I guess alot of records is tainted in the fact that you are comparing apples to oranges. For example, for many years, the NBA did not have a three point line. That had to have an affect on the most points scored statistic. Etc. I don't buy the argument that you still have to hit the baseball. Although true, we are talking about being able to hit it another 15 to 20 feet, or whatever it is. It has to taint the total number of home runs allowed. Saying all that, I guess the record has to be acknowledged. A little different scenario but I would still vote for Rose to be in the Hall. He is the King of hitters. There is no proof that he threw any games as a manager. In fact. It's quite obvious that it goes totally against his nature to throw a game.

A) The guy has never tested positive for steroid use and is really being grilled for not having a great history with the press. So, what if he's unlikeable? Michael Jordan was unlikeable and everyone kissed his arse for decades. I don't think you have to make friends with the press in order to be validated as an athlete.

and

B) Even if (unproven by tests) Bonds used some form of enhancement, the MLB has built itself on a litany of players "cheating" to get ahead. Remember the old saying, "If you're not cheating, you're not trying."? With all the corked bats, pine tar, sandpaper and other crap this game has a history for. It's awfully hypocritical and disingenuous to now all of a sudden, invent this "integrity" of the sport to hold over Bonds all for what? He's an A-Hole? So was Ty Cobb...get over it.

A) The guy has never tested positive for steroid use and is really being grilled for not having a great history with the press. So, what if he's unlikeable? Michael Jordan was unlikeable and everyone kissed his arse for decades. I don't think you have to make friends with the press in order to be validated as an athlete.

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Like I said earlier up-thread, I don't think this is about Bonds being "unlikeable." Mark McGwire was all but canonized by the media and the public for his '98 season, but when it became all too apparent that he was hiding something (during his testimony in the Congressional hearings), his credibility vanished. Pretty much everyone who looks at Bonds' records as being tainted feels the same way about McGwire, and the HOF voters absolutely lowered the boom on McGwire, to such an extent that it suddenly seems highly doubtful that he'll ever make it in.

On the other hand, the point about Bonds being singled out for "accountability" is largely valid, since nobody is dumb enough to believe that Bonds was the only one doing 'roids in all of baseball. And if one is claiming that such-and-such accomplishment by Bonds is tainted, it's entirely hypocritical not to hold other players from this era to a similar standard. It does present a problem, though, because Bonds really is the only one who's in Hank Aaron's company for the all-time HR record. I think that's a difficult dilemma to deal with.

I've been exposed to alot of this "scene" in my day, and the one fact that is prevalent no matter what the sport is this:

The guys that are using drugs are the ones that aren't very good at what they do, and look for other, illegal means to compete with the "big boys". Barry Bonds was a great player before anyone was assuming he was on drugs, and the minute he picks up a weight he's been tried and convicted without a shred of proof?

Low pretty much hit the nail on the head with his post. This is more about Bonds being a jerk than folks want to admit. I'm pretty sure if Tiger and LeBron weren't such likable guys they would be accused as well. Nobody gets into that kind of shape without drugs right?

A) The guy has never tested positive for steroid use and is really being grilled for not having a great history with the press. So, what if he's unlikeable? Michael Jordan was unlikeable and everyone kissed his arse for decades. I don't think you have to make friends with the press in order to be validated as an athlete.

and

B) Even if (unproven by tests) Bonds used some form of enhancement, the MLB has built itself on a litany of players "cheating" to get ahead. Remember the old saying, "If you're not cheating, you're not trying."? With all the corked bats, pine tar, sandpaper and other crap this game has a history for. It's awfully hypocritical and disingenuous to now all of a sudden, invent this "integrity" of the sport to hold over Bonds all for what? He's an A-Hole? So was Ty Cobb...get over it.

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I like your post. What does Henry Aaron have against Barry Bonds anyways....to the point that he'll ignore the record being broken ???

Barry Bonds was a great player before anyone was assuming he was on drugs, and the minute he picks up a weight he's been tried and convicted without a shred of proof?

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There are a few different things in play here. One has to get up pretty early in the morning to believe that Bonds didn't pump himself up with illegal stuff. As the book Game of Shadows clearly demonstrated, he was doing several steroids, and he even admitted to taking at least some of that stuff, but he denied (in grand jury testimony) that he knowingly took any of it. He said he assumed it was flak-seed oil, or whatever. Which is ridiculous.

On the other hand, it's equally ridiculous to assume that he was the only one doing all that stuff. The evidence for steroid use having been a widespread thing throughout the major leagues is overwhelming. And it also brings up issues of fairness in terms of punishment, whatever that amounts to. When Game of Shadows was published, more than a few sportswriters called for Bonds to be suspended, which was clearly absurd. Unless and until every single major leaguer who's been active in the past decade has the equivalent of a "Game of Shadows" written about them, it's unfair to inflict different treatment on Bonds than other players who, by virtue of being lower-profile names, don't become targets for investigative journalists.

Low pretty much hit the nail on the head with his post. This is more about Bonds being a jerk than folks want to admit. I'm pretty sure if Tiger and LeBron weren't such likable guys they would be accused as well. Nobody gets into that kind of shape without drugs right?

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I've brought up the McGwire example a couple of times now. I'd like one of you "this is all about people not liking Bonds" guys to respond to that.

And if one is claiming that such-and-such accomplishment by Bonds is tainted, it's entirely hypocritical not to hold other players from this era to a similar standard.

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I disagree with this because I totally agree with your next thought. Nobody else is even close right now. This isn't about him being black or anything. Look what they are doing to Rose and McGuire. This is totally about Bonds because he is close to obtaining one of the most prestigious records in baseball.